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How mortal enemies in DayZ became BFFs on Twitter

There are literally thousands of stories about unpleasant things that happen in the harsh, brutal zombie game DayZ, but this one is pretty fascinating: Guy plays game, guy meets bandit, bandit handcuffs guy, guy begs not to be chopped with an axe. Did I mention that the guy was Sean Vanaman, the lead writer for The Walking Dead adventure game?

This is pretty much how you'd expect a story in DayZ to go (aside from the playing with an important game writer thing). However, it gets weird when things take a turn for the real. You can read the Storify here, but here’s the elevator-pitch: would-be killer and the tortured victim randomly meet on Twitter, where they share an “Oh my god, it’s you!” moment, and then chat like old war buddies.

This is a great example of how narrative in games can really distinguish itself from that in literature and film. Because events in games are to some extent actually happening to you, you can take those experiences with you, and wind up with uncanny situations like these.